ExPatTyke

Managed to get out for a few hours on Sunday; my mother's suffering from dementia, so my attention has been elsewhere recently and I've not had so many chances to ride. I took a trip into Bristol via a few of the local villages and Ashton Court Estate, and came back through the Avon Gorge, over the M5 Avonmouth bridge, through Clevedon, and along the Strawberry Line cycle way. I got into Bristol just in time to see the swing bridge on the Cumberland Basin opening for the replica of the Matthew, John Cabot's ship. I took some sandwiches and stopped at the viewpoint over Seamills for lunch - the lack of sun meant I had it myself. Nice ride out overall, not bright and sunny but not raining so that was a win.


Ashton Court Mansion, from the cycle path across the estate.


Former tobacco warehouse on Spike Island, Bristol Docks.


The Matthew replica coming into the harbour.


Brunel's lock onto the Floating Harbour. This was built beside the old lock, as the old lock was found to be too small to let the Great Britain out, after the ship had been launched. I can't help thinking there must have been a few red faces.


Hotwells, looking downriver towards Brunel's Clifton suspension bridge.


Clifton suspension bridge from the Portway.


1987 ANC-Halfords Team Replica.


Lunch stop - the Avon Gorge from Seamills.


View upriver from the Avonmouth bridge.


Stronghold - sculpture made from left over steel from the widening of the bridge in the 1990s.

curbtender

Nothing like a ride to clear your head...

abshipp 

Rainy and overcast this morning courtesy of Ida. That gave way to sunny and humid at the very end.

Climbing 10-12% grades really isn't too bad when you've got a 30x32 available

kc0yef 

Across the street

Spaghetti Legs 

Storms left behind cooler temps and sunny skies. Got out for 50 miles on the VO Rando. Explored a new road and got about 10 miles of gravel in. Heavy rains washed a lot of the rough gravel away without leaving too many puddles or holes behind.

ExPatTyke as always, thanks for the pics from across the pond. Those of us who have fudged our vintage builds with a modern component can take solace in the sailing ship maneuvering the narrow waterway “by magic”.

billnuke1 

Cape Cod Canal at sunset…Really wanted to ride more…is getting darker earlier already!

Wildwood 

The morning ride
AD Olympian, large frame for endurance comfort. Smooth to the drops & not too deep.

Dry out here in Puget Sound highlands and Cascade foothills.


The pavement on a couple of rides from home is good so the 22mm rubber feels tight and right.

Mostly empty on this narrow road after commute & school busses have run.

Afternooner
Mondia Special 531SL


Early Fall foliage

Good pavement. Compliant and minimal traffic for a Friday.

Dry fields - mostly boggy wetlands in the old days. Summers up in Puget Sound much like central California’s near coastal environment (less fog) a couple of decades ago.

Sir_Name 

These have aged a couple of days.

malcala622

Wildwood 

I just wanted saddle time and easy miles in the legs - and by coordinating with son = rode off the mountain , down the highlands and got picked up in the lowlands . After 50 cruisin miles. I was evaluating a new saddle and new jersey.


Paved trail miles - ahhhh…. no cars or road stuff to think about.

Into Renton - love the rounded corners on building.

Public swimming pool sold out - but # of allowed swimmers = small, not the sounds of excitement from a small water park & big pool on LD weekend.


Everybody benefits from a fresh splash of fun!


Finally, just a flat cruise to my pickup point. My new jersey with front pockets, poly + wool blend is great. New to me vintage Bianchi frameset (in celeste) needs finishing.


Oh yeah - the saddle under evaluation is RHM186 with RHM special cut-out. Maybe more on that big success elsewhere.

Drillium Dude 

I have hardly ridden since coming back from Cino; getting other things done (like driving all the way home, for starters!). But I did get a bunch of pics, and there are even a few BF members in them

Cino 2021

DD

Ballenxj

Agreed.

Amelio 

I finally got my son on road bike (well it’s more of a gravel bike but it has dropbars) in when on our second longish ride, 18.5km.

we started out on Yonge Street, headed into Alexander Muirs Memorial Gardens, through the forest to Sherwood Park, then down Mt. Pleasant to to the gravel Trail at Mt pleasant cemetery. Then a quick ride back up Yonge Street to home.

was really satisfying to ride with him even with the complaints he had!

happy riding guys!

Spaghetti Legs 

Looking sharp Stu!

Took the Bianchi out for 20 around town miles which hit most of the tough hills, so 2k feet climbing.

McMansion development on the edge of town. Stiff climb but fun twisty descent on the return. Dudley Mountain in background.

Small garden at one of the UVA dorms. Nice punkin; hope it holds out until Halloween

jimmuller 

These last few weeks have been to hectic to deal with any bicycle stuff. So finally we managed to take the tandem out today. It was not a great effort. Oh, we made the effort but event conspired against us. I started us on a 6.1 mile loop which took us not so far from where we started. We've done before but not often. That was good because after we'd gotten about 2.5 miles down the next highway the rain started. Accuweather (which goes by several different names in our household) was predicting 2 hours more and radar agreed. We might have kept going anyway, been wet before and survived, but the bike hasn't been so happy lately. The chain has started skipping teeth when we put much oomph into it. I seem to recall that I replaced it not so long ago, and the FW teeth look good. However the medium and large chainrings have been on the bike for ages and are showing their age. We are being followed by sharks to just judge form the fins below our feet. On one occasion as we were starting out the chain jumped off the rings to the rear BB. So we turned around and went back to the car, ended with a bit over 10 miles (which for Prowler we will call 10.137443 miles). Not bad but not what we planned. I have work to do on the bike. Have to dig through my chainring collection, see if I need to order replacements. It could us a new front tire too.

Tomorrow I plan to take the older of my two Gazellen, the orange one, out for a solo ride.

nlerner

I also got hit by that somewhat unexpected rain today, Jim. We had just turned on to Forest St. in Dover, heading to Tangerini Farm in Millis (which has the best breakfast sandwiches in the Boston metropolitan area, IMO). Shortened the ride by heading back north at that point, settling for a breakfast sandwich at Quebrada Baking Company in Wellesley on Washington St. It was actually quite good! And I didn't mind getting lightly rained on for about 15 miles of the ride.

thinktubes 

jimmuller and nlerner - we had the same systems a few days back. Blue skies, then whammo! Got "un-requested" rain 2x last week. The second one didn't show on RADAR.

thinktubes 

Yesterday, I ate 2 sausages (brat+Italian) and a burger at a picnic. Rode 71 miles today since there was plenty of gas in the tank. Weather was excellent - upper 70s, clear, low humidity.

Decided to do some exploring and ride up to Century Park in Vernon Hills. It has 2 lakes, one with an island reachable by bridge. Here's a drone photo from the web:



Pretty nice in-person as well.



Here's the bridge to the island, in the larger of the lakes.



Had lunch at the Rondout Diamond and did a little train-spotting. Looks like they added a third line on the right.



Metra train heading to Libertyville (end-of-the-line) from the city.



Crossing the DesPlaines River - couple of kayaks just around the bend.



Definitely can feel the seasons starting to change - looking forward to doing more exploring before the season ends.

SurferRosa

Shilshole Bay

.

jimmuller 

Hey, I've been to Vernon Hills! I worked for a company based in Vernon Hills, went to an engineering planning meeting at company HQ once. The tallest hill in Vernon Hills is where one of the roads goes over some railroad tracks.

eom 

My son invited me to ride today. Went to a local orchard for some warm doughnuts.
39 miles, low 70's, low traffic on the back roads.

A great day,

jimmuller 

Warm donuts. Breakfast sandwiches. Life is good, isn't it?

I did manage to take the older and definitely orange Gazelle Champion Mondial out for a spin today. Ended up with 28.8 miles. We plan to go hiking tomorrow and I didn't want to wear out my legs today.

I like this bike! Tight precise handling, easy rolling, comfortable (as long as road isn't too bumpy). I had built this up with 3x5 gearing, a feature I had forgotten! What a nice surprise to find that I always the right gear available for every piece of terrain, plus a low I and a high I never needed. Also Mavic rims with Veloflex sewups. The equipment is a bit anachronistic but what the heck, it works really well.

Orange and green, with a a bit of blue to add color. And a direction marker in case anyone gets lost.

djkashuba 

Colnago/ Gold Coast Bakery Duncans Mills by djk762, on Flickr

JacobLee 

I’ve been riding the same old Raleigh on the same old roads, but today I had a new-to-me bike and I’d heard that one of the cool, twisty west hills roads in Portland is closed to cars for tunnel repairs, so I thought I’d check it out.



There are paths around the tunnels, but people were walking through them, so it was a neat opportunity to check out a spot that is usually swarming with cars.



I looped around through Forest Park to try the patented “Soft Tail 2” rear end on my Stumptown cross frame.



Yeah, I don’t know about soft, but it’s a great ride, and a neat piece of local bike lore. Finished up on my usual route - not too shabby!

ascherer 

Two rides covered. On Saturday my wife and I rode together for the second time this year. For a lot of reasons it’s been a very slow season. We tried the Ashokan Reservoir trail near our place in Woodstock and it was delightful. There-and-back was a bit over 22 miles, I was on my Mercian.





Back in the city today, I felt like heading to Orchard Beach in the Bronx, a destination I like to get to a couple of times each season. Well, today was a slog. Sometimes it’s like that. About 10 miles in I started to run low and just kind of plodded my way through the ride. It kind of shows on my face here, I was about 3 miles from home. But, I rode!




Am I home yet?